The first line, it will be observed, is preceded by a cross. This indicated that the child should cross himself before beginning his lesson, according to the custom of all good Catholics. In doing this he was taught to say "God spede me, A. B. C." or some similar pious rhyming invocation. We learn from Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (London, 1611), that this first line was called La Croix de par Dieu, or "The Chriss-Cross Row," or, as we should say, "The Christ-Cross Row." This sheds light on Shakespeare's lines: He from the cross-row plucks the letter G But it is referred to earlier than this, for we find a horn-book spoken of in Coote's English Schoolmaster, published about 1596, and a "Horne A. B. C." was licensed by the Stationers Company to John Wolfe in 1587. From some prints similar to that of the horn-book page, which have been found on the Continent of Europe, it would further appear that they were among the earliest products of the printing press; and notwithstanding their strength and the method of protecting them, known examples of them are very rare. They have been discovered chiefly by chance, and more often than not by reason of their having found an accidental hiding place. For example, two were found under Referring to the superstition of King the floor of a church, when it was Richard III. There are not wanting other allusions to the horn-book in English literature. In Love's Labour's Lost, Armado says to Holofernes, "Monsieur, are you lettered?" and the mother replies, "Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book." In Shenston's The Schoolmistress, he describes the "books of stature small" Which with pellucid horn secured are Neatly secured from being soiled or torn Which children use, and parsons when they preach. taken up for repairs, and another in the thatch of an old farmhouse in Derbyshire. This latter has a more than ordinary interest. On the back, which is covered with leather, is an equestrian figure of Charles I., with symbols which would indicate sympathy with the martyrd king. These no doubt led to its being hidden at a time when to express such sympathy was dangerous. When, with the restoration of Charles II. the danger was past, the children to whom it belonged were grown up. The hornbook was forgotten, and so it has come to light in our day. Another, unfitted to its board back, was found in an old copy of Boethius, to which it had served as a fly-leaf. This one was printed by E. Raban of Aberdeen, Scotland, about 1630. But it is impossible to enumerate all the finds of horn-books within the limits of this article. In the late Mr. A. W. Tuer's two handsome volumes on the subject may be found probably all that was known about them to the date of its writing. The whereabouts of the best known are in As I am He is up first hundred years of its colonization. But the New England Primer itself was in a sense a development of the horn-book. For the horn-book with its ChrissCross Row, the Syllabarium, and the Lord's Prayer, formed the first page of all the earliest English primers, and A B C D E FGHIJK LMNOP QRSTUV WXYZ & a b c d e f g hijklmn opqrstu v w x y z & dicated and their characteristics noted. If my recollection serves me aright, but one horn-book has been found in the United States, and it is doubtful whether any were ever made in this country. Doubtless some were imported from the mother-land, but little was done in the way of making books for children in this country during the the primer was thus an enlargement and a development of the horn-book. This first page had disappeared, however, before the New England Primer was made, or else the Puritanical spirit had lopped off the Chriss-Cross Row as savoring too much of the Scarlet Woman! I have never found any record of the original selling prices of the horn books, but it is certain that the low price, as it appears to us, of the early primers, was too high for the common folk. Pennies in England in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries had a much higher purchasing power and were consequently harder to obtain than now, and when John Newbery began in the middle of the eighteenth century to make the publication of children's books a specialty for the first time in the history of the craft, he and his colleagues were constantly endeavoring to bring children's literature of all kinds within the reach of everyone. Hence in 1746, Benjamin Collins, a printer of Salisbury, with whom John Newbery was associated in many of his enterprises, invented the Battledore. This was built on exactly the plan described at the beginning of this paper. To give a better idea of them we reproduce an early Newbery example. The first style published contained simply the material used for the hornbook. This was called the Imperial Battledore. Later followed the British Battledore and the Royal Battle dore. In these latter, easy readinglessons, short fables, didactic stories, and bits of natural history replaced the religious element of the horn-book. At first they were sold at four pence plain, and six pence colored, but later on they were sold at twelve shillings a gross. As they cost three pounds ten shillings a thousand to make, the margin of profit was not large, but over one hundred thousand were sold at the latter price by Collins alone, from 1771 to 1780. The copyright laws of those days were very lax. The Newbery publications were pirated all over the country by unscrupulous imitators and enormous numbers of these battledores were made and sold by the firms who, following the Newberys, took up the publication of books for children. Darton and Harvey, Dean and Sons, Mozley, and Thomas Richardson of Derby turned them out by the hundred thousand. And now, of all these hundreds of thousands, a stray couple have turned up in an auction room in Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A.! EARLY FILES OF NEWSPAPERS IN THE NEW YORK OF SOCIETY LIBRARY BY FRANK BARNA BIGELOW course we all know what a newspaper is, but to be perfectly clear at the beginning and show the limits of my subject, I will define a newspaper as a daily, weekly or semiweekly periodical, which presents the news of the day. The first English newspaper is said to be the Weekly News issued in London in 1622. In America Public Occurrences was printed in Boston in 1690. It lived one day and only one copy is known to have been preserved. The Boston News-Letter, printed by Bartholomew Green in 1704, was the first permanent newspaper in America. On December 21, 1719, The Boston Gazette appeared, the second newspaper in America. In Philadelphia on December 22, 1719 (the day following), the American Weekly Mercury was published. The New York Gazette, printed and sold by William Bradford, October 16, 1725, was New York's first newspaper. It was published weekly on each Monday. No perfect file exists. It is ill printed, with little news and few advertisements. Beginning with a single leaf, the size increased gradually to six. It is a small folio, with the arms of the city on the left of the title; on the right, a pine tree and a postman mounted on an animal intended to represent a horse. Of this paper the library has a file beginning March 21, 1726, and extending to November 17, 1729. Bradford died in 1752, at the age of ninety. His tombstone is preserved in the New York Historical Society building. The next earliest paper in the library is The New England Weekly Journal, printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green. No. 1 was issued on March 20, 1727, being the fourth newspaper published in Boston. Of this the library has only one number, April 8, 1728. Kneeland, in his prospectus, promised a number of new features in journalism. He proposed the organization of a corps of correspondents of the "most knowing and ingenious gentlemen in several noted towns" to send the news. Then comes The Independent Reflector, published weekly on Thursdays, by James Parker. There are in the library the first number, November 30, 1752, and August 9 and 23, 1753. Aaron Burr, Governor Livingston, William Alexander and William Smith were reputed to be contributors to it. It gave offence to men in power and was suppressed after two years' publication. Of The Plebeian "by Noah Meanwell," a weekly, printed and sold by Hugh Gaine, Hildeburn says (in his Sketches of Printers and Printing in Colonial New York) he has not seen a copy. It was first issued in August, 1754. There is only a single number in the library, No. 5, Wednesday, September 11, 1754. Of The New York Gazette or the Weekly Post-Boy, printed by J. Parker and W. Weyman, the library has a somewhat imperfect file from September 23, 1754, to December 11, 1769. This paper was established by James Parker in January, 1742, about the time Bradford discontinued his Gazette, and was the third newspaper published in New York. Parker had been apprenticed to Bradford in 1725, but ran away and a small reward for his capture appeared in Bradford's Gazette. On the thirty-first of Octo'ber, 1765, Parker's paper appeared in mourning on account of the Stamp Act. From 1757 to 1760 every paper bore an impression in red, of the stamp prescribed under the provincial act of 1756-"the first American American Stamp Act complied with without demur and forgotten in consequence," says Hildeburn. Then follows The New-York Mercury, printed by Hugh Gaine, weekly, on Mondays. It was first published on August 3, 1752. Of this the library has an imperfect file of the years 1757 to 1778. Hugh Gaine was a very curious character. Thomas, in his History of Printing, remarks: "Gaine's political creed was to join the strongest party." His paper ceased publication in 1783. Hugh Gaine was a trustee of the Society Library from 1788 to 1806. Of the New York Gazette, printed by William Weyman, the library has the years 1759-1767. Weyman as well as Parker had been apprenticed to Bradford, and Weyman had been later an assistant to Parker for several years. In 1759, he started his own New York Gazette. Later in the year he supplanted Parker as Printer to the Province. The Gazette terminated on December 28, 1767, and Weyman died in the following July. About the time the American Stamp Act was put into operation, a political paper was privately printed at Burlington, New Jersey, called The Constitutional Courant, "containing Matters interesting to Liberty-but no wise repugnant to Loyalty. Printed by Andrew Marvel at the Sign of the Bribe refused on Constitution Hill, North America." In the centre of the title was a snake, cut into pieces to represent the colonies, and over it the motto, "Join or Die." Of this the library has No. 1, September 21, 1765, the only number issued. It contains several well written articles against the Stamp Act, and was widely circulated and reprinted in New York and Boston, causing great excitement. Of The New York Journal or the General Advertiser, the library has the years 1767 to 1775. This paper was printed by John Holt, the first number being issued on May 29, 1766, on account of a quarrel which he had with James Parker. They settled their differenees, but in October quarreled again, when Holt, instead of calling the second issue of his paper No. 2, took the number of the Gazette "1241," thinking the latter paper would die soon. Both papers continued for several years having the |